Flooring

"Ultima Esperanza" has a two-in-one set. Fox's room segments will be filmed first, then Ultima's flooring and wall-hangings will be added and filmed afterward.

<- Ultima's floor will be carpeted in the dark gray fabric shown here. I should have spread it out to give you a better idea of what it'll look like - but it's gorgeous material. Deep, lightly textured, with just a bit of shine.









Fox, on the other hand, has a more time-consuming bedroom floor. His is tiled, and the tiles--such as they are--come from the insides of dozens of soymilk cartons. Yes, these things. I still need about 15 more cartons to finish the floor.

(Note: The tiles in this image are placed, not permanently adhered. It'll look better when it's finished - I swear.)

Read the Instructions!

I decided I needed a toaster oven for the polymer clay parts of my puppets, because heating up the kitchen oven for such small pieces was a waste (not to mention the health warnings against using the same oven for food and clay). So I bought one. I set it up. I read the directions. I re-read the directions. Then I put my pieces in to bake.

They burned to a crisp (see "after" in the image below).

After grieving over the hour or so of work I'd lost in mixing the clay to a matching shade of gray, I decided that the oven must be broken, or have some bad wiring. I mean, I'd put it in for less than the recommended time, and it was burned to the point of complete discoloration. I decided to return it.

Before I did, though, I re-re-read the instructions. Not surprisingly, when I'd read the numbers before, I'd switched the times between the different temperatures--despite my foreseeing such a thing and trying to prevent it. Sometimes I really think I must be dyslexic.

[And now, the power of MS Paint allows you to see what I'm talking about. The large "before" piece is the color that the smaller pieces were before they went in the oven. I decided to paint them rather than make new ones.]

Memorial Day Monday - Puppet Desk

I didn't finish the puppet hair yet.

However, I did visit my grandparents yesterday, and look at what my grandfather had for me:


The female puppet's desk. :)
(sans paint--working on that)

This desk is largely a model of the desk I used all through high school. It was sturdy, big, and bulky. It was the kind of piece that stayed around for years, bearing the etchings of its various owners in its decade-old varnish. As everything in Ultima's (female puppet) room is slightly out-of-date, it seemed appropriate.

The male puppet's desk, which is much more sleek and modern, needs three remaining pieces before I can assemble it. After that, I have only to make the chairs, computers, a bulletin board, and two puppet cores (inner torsos, that is).

It's getting very close to film time.

Memorial Day Weekend

I'm not fond of holiday weekends. They're like line-cutters who jump in and screw up the assigned order.

Nonetheless, they come whether I like them or not, and I try to make the best of them.

This Memorial Day Sunday, I've been twisting yards of wire to make my male puppet's hair:

It's rather dull work. The thought that keeps me twisting is that if I finish it today, I can move on to something more interesting (assembling a minature desk) tomorrow. Sadly, this is the part of puppet films I don't like: puppet construction. In high school, the biggest reason I pulled away from becoming a theatre costume technician was because I hated sitting for hours on end pulling strands of faux hair through wig fabric.

I have a hard time sitting still, even at the computer. I am fidgiting and looking for distractions right now.

If the studio ever has money someday, I will hire an artisan to construct my puppets for me (after hiring a real photographer, that is).

Current Project - Ultima Esperanza

My current (non-commercial) project is a fan-film for The Dresden Dolls' "Ultima Esperanza" (see a few pictures of the pre-production process here).

I decided to start the studio off with a fan-film to prevent any wide-eyed aspirations of earning money off of indie, stop-motion puppet films. My only goal with this is to produce a really cool music video. No profit, no losses, nothing in it for me but the satisfaction of seeing my work. Besides, the idea wouldn't leave me alone.

The start of filming will have to wait until after graduation (only a few days away), and the excitement of moving fully into the production stage is starting to get to me. I've been chewing / filing my nails to the quick as I sit around at the computer tweaking the weareseven.com website. My cats are wondering why I stay up at my desk so late at night instead of going to bed.

Sorry, kitties. No rest for the mentally itchy.